As most of the world is shutting down because of the Corona Virus (COVID-19) and people are finding their way to get into a new schedule for their families, we are slowly getting used to home school activities for our kids. Can we homeschool our children? What are the options? For now, if it was up to me…I can do this for weeks. You can talk to me in a few weeks, I might have changed my mind!

Home School in the Netherlands and the USA

Home school in the Netherlands is not allowed, even though there are some exemptions. I wonder what families are doing in the rest of the world. Is every family forced to homeschool?

In a lot of families in the Netherlands, both parents work, either full or part-time. Hopefully parents can manage work schedules from home. This is not going to work for everyone. A huge thank you and big shout out to all the care givers and teachers in the world. I cannot imagine how stressful this must be!

In the USA, home school is an option for a lot of families. For those families, not much will change, but I’m happy to see some of these families giving a good amount of advice, tips and tricks. So thank you!!!

This might be a tricky time for the families who never “homeschooled”, before….like our family. How long is this pandemic going to be? Will homeschooling be our future?

I enjoyed my first week of quarantine.

I am kind of an introvert myself and I really like to be at home. Especially our NEW home. There is sooo much to do, things I want to do and hardly ever have time for them. I normally work every day after dropping the kids off at school from 9 AM till 3:30 PM. Then I pick the kids up and spend the afternoon with them (homework, play dates, sports, Destination Imagination, making dinner etc).

This might have been a sign from Mother Nature: Spend time with your family, enjoy going more inward, be creative….and less pollution in the world! For now, I enjoyed my first week of quarantine, actually. I know a lot of people cannot say the same thing. They might be sick or a loved one is sick, uncertainty over health, finances and feeling the social isolation. I think, we’ll make it through! Somehow! We just don’t know what this is and what will happen.

Our first week of home school

On Sunday March 15 my husband and I decided to self-quarantine our family. At that point we hadn’t heard anything from our school yet. Luckily a few hours later, an answer came from school. No school on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday morning the lower school parents could come to school to pick up a school packet and the child’s belongings. The middle and upper school students could come in the afternoon. They should see their teachers for the different subjects to make sure it is clear what the students need to do at home.

A disinfection station was set up at the school entrance. The meetings with the teachers should be brief. We could call, text or email our teachers with questions.

Is a weekly schedule useful or not?

It was home school or remote learning on Thursday and Friday for now. We received a survey about remote learning set up possibilities at home. The teachers got an introduction as well about how to use Zoom software in a class setting. The school packets we received, are going to be dropped off on March 30th outside of school and we’ll receive a new packet for the following week.

I made already a schedule for our 6-year old, because she likes to check things off and is always looking forward to new activities. Also I think, it is important to keep a schedule going, like the kids did in class.

Our son, doesn’t want to know about any schedules. If it was up to him, he would be watching anime, talk to his friends and playing video games all day long. I gave him the option: – You plan your own schedule, but do the things you need to do (have breakfast, brush teeth, work on the home school packet, go outside, and do some chores and be involved in family activities). He has to write everything down, so I could see what he did and we can decide if that would work. OR – You use the example schedule from school. If this all doesn’t work, I’ll take over and I’ll make the schedule.

Our oldest had their normal school schedule, but online on Zoom, instead.

So far, so good!

What happened after one week of home school.

We are still alive…no fights, no COVID…everyone is adjusting just fine!

During this week, I was so surprised how ignorant people can be. How many times people say:” It’s just a flu.” or “Life just goes on.” Not keeping physical distance or washing their hands. People in the Netherlands are going to events and markets and don’t keep distance at all.

Here in the US students are going to Florida for their Spring Break and keep partying. REALLYYY??? They don’t understand how infectious this disease is and how easily you can infect hundreds or thousands of people. Even if you don’t experience symptoms: you can still be a carrier…. Sorry about the rant, but this could take a long time, especially if people are just doing the things they want to do.

Anyway, breathhhhh….here is what we did!

8th grade

Thursday and Friday were full “normal” school schedules for our oldest. I heard teacher voices and laughter coming from the laptop in their room. We made sure they went outside those days. They even made their own lunches. (I use they/them, because our oldest decided recently to be non-binary and prefers the pronounce they/them.)

6th grade

As I said before, our 6th grader didn’t want to comply with the suggested schedule from school. He did write all the activities on a piece of paper. The afternoons were still full of computer time on Thursday, but we split it up into passive computer time (playing games and watching anime) and active computer time (looking at field trips online , making animated stories with FlipAClip or doing a course about something he really wants to learn, I know I have a few on my list which I could show him;). Friday went a lot better. But what are we going to do next week for Spring Break?

1st grade

Our 6-year old and I decided to stick with our own schedule. See my last post.

• After waking up, having breakfast, brush teeth and do meditation, we started with math (her favorite) and writing or reading.

• Then she helped me with a chore.

• After that, we had a mid-morning snack and she had free play till 11 AM.

• And after that we went through kids crafts on Pinterest and chose a nice one to make. In that time I was getting some lunch ready for all of us.

• Till 1 PM we had time to go for a walk.

• From 1-2 PM she could watch another episode on Scholastic, which has different days set up in themes, like “Spiders”, “Weather” or “Sound and Music” and other related games, books, games or video’s. You can choose by grade.

• After that was Free Play or Outdoor Play till about 3 PM.

• Then she could choose any of the STEAM themes and we would find a fun thing on Pinterest.

• And finally it was time for her to watch something of choice on the iPad.

• Dinner, shower or bath and our evening routine.

We both liked this set-up very much.

Which other activities during COVID can you do?

It seemed that we all love cooking and especially now we’re all together and have a good amount of time, we ALL started baking and cooking.

Our 12-year old is into cooking challenges. For a few lunches I put a tray out with some ingredients he could use. He made lunches for everyone.

Our 6-year old helped me, making dahl soup and pizza’s.

And I’m really impressed with our oldest, who made a Key Lime Pie and they just took yummy Cinnamon Buns out of the oven. The house smells amazing!!!

A little TikTok movie where our 13-year old makes a key lime pie!

What are your experiences? Any problems, any new ideas? Please comment below? We can all get through this. Keep in touch!

Danielle

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my Crafty Dutch Girl blog! Grab a cup of “koffie” and browse through fun blog posts about our Dutch family expat life in the USA, Dutch history, Dutch recipes, Dutch things to do in the USA and all kinds of crafts and activities. Don’t forget to connect with me for new ideas! “Groetjes en tot ziens”.